It would be easy for the biggest show in cable TV history to coast on its accomplishments and deliver some predictable fare for season 6, but as outlined in our current cover story on The Walking Dead, the AMC hit appears to be headed into some bold territory. Count star Andrew Lincoln among those who are jazzed about what’s on the horizon.

Lincoln sat down with us at his recent EW cover shoot to talk about the upcoming season (which returns Oct. 11). What words would he use to describe it? “Big,” says Lincoln. “Very big. Ambitious. Brave.”

Those are cool words, but what do they mean? Lincoln elaborated…somewhat. He also took time to praise the vision of showrunner Scott. M. Gimple. “There are more walkers than we’ve ever faced before. I think the storytelling is astonishing. Scott has kind of picked up very much where we left off and he’s spinning 18 principal storylines in an incredibly complicated and cool way.”

Season premiere director Greg Nictotero revealed to EW that the first episode will begin in the middle of a big action sequence and then force viewers to put together the puzzle pieces as it jumps around in time a bit, and Lincoln insists that viewers will be surprised. “I think that episode 1 is something that people are not going to expect,” says the star. “I certainly didn’t when I read it. And when we filmed it, it just grew and grew and it got deeper and deeper. And I think there are a couple of episodes this season that are certainly some of the best episodes I’ve read, maybe in a couple of seasons.”